Elder Robert E. Sackley Eulogized

“This has been a beautiful day, a day of saying good-bye, but not forever, just for a season, following which there will be a reunion,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency, at the funeral of Elder Robert E. Sackley, a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. “I think that Bob Sackley … developed a capacity to lose himself in the cause which we call the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the process of that service, he has passed on to a reward which will be certain and sure and wonderful.”

“Robert Sackley always went where the Lord wanted him to go, and he always said what the Lord wanted him to say,” noted President Thomas S. Monson, Second Counselor in the First Presidency. “His testimony has been borne with fervor, and the truth just sparkled in his eyes. … Many are those who have embraced the gospel because of that testimony.”

“Wherever he labored, Bob was equally at home among the humble or the noble of the earth,” commented Elder Russell M. Nelson, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Elder Sackley died in Australia on 22 February 1993 of natural causes. As first counselor in the Pacific Area presidency, he was traveling on assignment with his wife at the time of his death.

Born 17 December 1922 in Australia, Robert lived in Canada with his wife and family prior to receiving his call as a General Authority. There he worked as president of Medicine Hat College.

Elder Sackley, seventy, was sustained as a member of the Seventy in April 1988. Prior to his present assignment, he had served as managing director in the Missionary Department and as second counselor in the North America Southeast Area presidency.

Before receiving a call as a General Authority, he served the Church as a mission president in the Philippines and in Nigeria and in many other callings.

Robert Sackley was baptized in 1946 after learning of the Church from Marjorie Orth of Brisbane, Australia. He and Marjorie were married 29 March 1947.

Elder Sackley is survived by his wife, five children, and seventeen grandchildren.